CORYNEBACTERIUM CAMPOREALENSIS SP. NOV., ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLINICAL MASTITIS IN SHEEP

Four strains of a hitherto-unknown catalase-positive, facultatively an aerobic Corynebacterium species were isolated from the milk of sheep a ffected by subclinical mastitis. The most characteristic phenotypic re actions of the four strains were their weak fermentative acid producti on from glucose, their failure to produce acid from mannitol, xylose, sucrose and maltose. and a strong CAMP reaction with Staphylococcus au reus, Chemotaxonomic investigations revealed the presence of a cell wa ll based on meso-diaminopimelic acid and short-chain mycolic acids, wh ich is consistent with the genus Corynebacterium, A comparative 16S rR NA gene sequence analysis confirmed that the organisms from sheep were members of the genus Corynebacterium, where they formed a distinct su bline, exhibiting >4% sequence divergence with other known Corynebacte rium species. Based an both phenotypic and phylogenetic findings, a ne w species, Corynebacterium camporealensis, is proposed. The type strai n of Corynebacterium camporealensis is CECT 4897 (= CRS-51(T)).